If you have never used Waterslide decals this video tutorial will show you the steps.
All of the decals I use come from Fighting Pirannha Graphics. Decals are a great way to spice up your minis without the pain of small detail painting. Sorry for some bad framing during certain parts of the video. It is kind of hard to work with a camera in front of you.
I hope you enjoy!
Posted under Minis
After a long wait I finally got around to finishing this company. I originally had big plans to try out a new style of painting. When it became obvious that I didn’t have a clue what to do, I regressed to my usual routine and for a while became so disappointed that I left them to collect dust for weeks on end without so much as touching them.
Every project has it’s lessons learned and this one is no different. At this juncture, I’m just glad to be able to wipe the slate clean and rid my work bench of this albatross (both figurative and literal). I am excited to get to my next project whatever it ends up being.
Command Lance
Fire Lance
Chase Lance
Support Lance
Aerospace Wing
Guthry Island is a glass crater. I’m sure what ‘Mech manufacturing facilities were there are now fused together in some frankenstein amalgamation of ferro-crete and ‘Mech parts. And now the damn Blakists are out here scouring the wreckage and the scrap for anything that might be rushed into new service for their demon worshiping troops. The Drac schism just made things worse. It’s getting to the point you can’t tell who is out here to help you or kill you. Or worse, reeducate you.
I hear footsteps now. Someone’s coming. No. Something’s coming. No doubt to make an even greater mess of this god forsaken city.
Forces from the Word of Blake Ninth Division and Sixth Benjamin are converging on the ruins of LAW city to capture what’s left of the battered city. This scenario is an adaptation from Jihad Turning Points Luthien. Instead of playing this wartrack in a campaign, this mission is being used as a stand alone scenario using the Quick Strike rules from Strategic Operations.
Word of Blake
Draconis Combine
Objectives
NOTE: Objective buildings were selected in secret before the start of the game.
First Turn – Draconis Combine Wins Initiative
Both forces barrel into the city. The Word of Blake concentrates their forces heading into the city center while the Combine fans out their faster units around the perimeter.
A Word of Blake Koshi manages to square a shot against the Combine leader in his Thunderbolt scratching the paint but little else.
Return long range fire from the Combine misses its mark. Both sides are prepared to engage in earnest in the ensuing turns.
Second Turn – Draconis Combine Wins Initiative
As the Word of Blake moves in to occupy most of the central park area, a brave Thor pilot contests the area against the odds. Once the Word commander committed to the fray the Draconis Combine’s fast flanking units moved in to score damage.
The Combine saw limited opportunities for concentrated fire and thus spread damage across the multiple enemy ‘Mechs.
The Word of Blake took advantage of superior positioning to wreak havoc on the Combine light units. The Spider fell to concentrated weapon fire and the Fenrir Battle Armor to a blast from a Blackhawk. The Panther met it’s end from a hatchet but not before the offending Hatchetman received an engine critical hit.
Third Turn – Word of Blake Wins Initiative
The Draconis Combine forces, reeling from losing three units while eliminating none, scatter away from the city center to contest nearby buildings. The Word pursued, taking advantage of the initiative, to surge to one side leaving limited forces behind in positions encircling the Combine forces.
The Combine forces bit back and brought down the Hatchetman and Joust Tank who were both unable to move with the Blakist surge or take cover.
Now surrounded and helpless the Thor pilot braced against the incoming weapons fire. The ‘Mech almost survived the onslaught if not for a well placed infantry shot which blew off the head. A Saxon APC also met its end to a Joust Tank in a single volley.
Fourth Turn – Word of Blake Wins Initiative
Further outnumbered and now on the run, the Draconis Combine units look to the safety of cover provided by the park in the city center that the Word just left behind. Meanwhile the Word of Blake consolidates their power on the far side of the battlefield, tipping their hand to their objective buildings. Two Combine units move to take opportunistic shots at the enemy commander at long range.
Long range shots against the Word Commander succeed in further shredding armor, getting close to the core. Further damage is levied against the Word Centurion and MadCat. The Saxon APC draws fire away from it’s Commander, dieing in the process from point blank shots.
Though lining up a killing shot on the Uller’s rear, the Word’s aim falters and the Uller lives another turn. The Combine Packhunter is less lucky and is destroyed.
Fifth Turn – Draconis Combine Wins Initiative
While Blake forces hold the line on the far side of the city a lone squad of Raiden battle armor jumps into the fray beside the enemy commander hoping for a glorious kill. Meanwhile the Combine commander sulks between the city buildings to contest Word holdings. Word of Blake forces surge again to surround the Combine command ‘Mech.
The Uller and DI Morgan combined fire to rip the Word MadCat apart. The Condor Tank pierces the remaining WoB Joust Tank, exploding it’s ammo bay. The Thunderbolt finishes off the wounded Centurion. Alone and against the odds, the Raiden Battle Armor squad dealt the deathblow to the Word commander and manage to survive combat as well. In one turn four Blakist units fall.
The Blakist Saxon APC scored a critical hits against the Condor Tank’s drive system while final damage is levied against the Combine commander in his Thunderbolt.
Sixth Turn – Draconis Combine Wins Initiative
Now low on numbers, both forces consolidate. The Combine leaves the lone Raiden squad to contest objectives while Word infantry swarm the remaining Combine ‘Mech forces.
Word infantry dodge incoming fire and leave their mark, destroying the last Combine ‘Mech. Exchanging long range shots the Blackhawk receives another hit, shedding half it’s armor.
Seventh Turn – Draconis Combine Wins Initiative
The Draconis Combine forces obliterate the offending infantry from their side of the battlefield but not before they damage the Condor Tank further. The Raiden Battle Armor, with no where to run or hide, are forced to fight and are unable to retaliate before their own demise.
Eighth Turn – Draconis Combine Wins Initiative
In an effort to ward off Draconis units, the WoB units gather together behind cover, ready to pounce. The Draconis’ Di Morgan takes up position fortifying its control of the two tallest towers in the city.
Ninth Turn – Word of Blake Wins Initiative
The Word ‘Mechs jump to the far side of the city while the Combine’s lone infantry unit jumps away from the DI Morgan Tank. Backed up by the Blackhawk, the Koshi contests one of the two towers controlled by the Draconis Combine while the WoB infantry finish taking control of the Radio Tower on the other side of the battlefield.
Tenth Turn – Draconis Combine Wins Initiative
As the WoB ‘Mechs fall back to ensure control of their buildings, the Draconis Combine’s battle armor reveals why it allowed itself to be seperated from the Di Morgan. The battle armor manages to position itself to contest the Radio Tower’s control center while also finding cover from the Koshi’s weapons. The remaining Word infantry are not powerful enough to finish off the Draconis battle armor, untouched until now, and the battle armor survives by dodging the Blackhawk’s massive laser fire.
AFTERMATH
Both forces achieved the Grudge Match and Maximum Damage objectives but failed to control both their objectives. The Draconis Combine needed to control the two tall buildings while the Word of Blake had selected the Radio Tower and it’s nearby control center.
While technically a draw, the Word of Blake had significant offensive power left to bear against the Combine survivors. A marginal victory goes to the Word of Blake.
Posted under After Action ReportThe internet is a wonderful thing. I spotted some great videos on YouTube the other day from Terrainaholic. He has two videos (>10 min each) that detail how he makes 6mm buildings for epic scale games. This scale would also work well for Battletech and even Mechwarrior AoD.
Terrainaholic’s…
Not everyone out there has such an amazing workshop. I’m definately jealous. I’m not sure exactly how he gets his pink foam sheets so thin but the final outcome makes me want to give it a try for some of my 3D terrain.
With a lot of patience I think these could work very well on both 2″ hexes and standard map sheets. Hope this gives you some inspiration for you own terrain projects.
Posted under News
Iron Wind Metals has a lot of surprises on it’s website. One item you won’t likely see in your local gaming store is the new Interstellar Radar Dish. To the regular Battletech player the image is iconic. It’s not some run of the mill radar dish, but a Hyper Pulse Generator station.
The sculpt looks stunning. I picked mine up at Cold Wars in Lancaster Pa at the Iron Wind Metals booth. You can get your own on the Iron Wind Metals website.
The full kit is made up of resin and pewter parts that come together to form the full terrain piece. The resin pieces seem to be cast from an original that was made in a prototyping machine. There are long concentric rings around the dish that are very obvious up close. Not a huge problem although I can see how those rings would be accentuated by dry brushing. Keep this in mind when you paint yours.
The pewter pieces come together rather easily. The only issue besides the obvious flash and casting trim is the center dish antenna. It is made up of two pieces that don’t come together as cleanly as one would hope. You will need some green stuff in order to patch up this defect before priming and painting.
The dish counterweights (the round things sticking out the back) were a bit tricky to glue together and were also two pieces. In the end, I used a wad of green stuff to stick them together.
I painted my own piece rather quickly and am only marginally satisfied with my work. The primer coat was not ideal, but I pressed on so I could finish the project. No sense keeping such a fine sculpt on my desk collecting dust. I’ve got plans for this little dish after all.
The HPG terrain piece can be used as mere decoration or as something more elaborate as a centerpiece of an objective based scenario. Here are a few ideas on how to incorporate this terrain in your own games. Use the large base for hexless terrain games but do without on a standard hex map. Both styles look great and accommodate large and small games alike.
The attacking force needs to send a message out and to get a ‘Mech within communication distance (usually 3 or 4 hexes, 6 if the ‘Mech has an active probe) for two consecutive turns in order to transmit the data to/from the station. During those turns no ranged combat attacks may be made by the scanning unit.
The HPG must go down. Give it a hefty construction factor ( > 100 CF) and send in the troops to either defend it or destroy it. As an interesting twist, use the shielding rules from Tactical Operations (page 19). Another option is to impose a rule where the attacking force may NOT target the HPG if there is an enemy ‘Mech in range with a to-hit number of seven or less. This kind of rule will result in some interesting decisions by both Attacker and Defender.
You have a spy on the inside and he needs to get out before his cover is blown. Your force is tasked to get him out in one piece. Follow the extraction scenario in Total Warfare (page 260) but limit the spy placement to within 6 hexes of the HPG.
Unique terrain is a great way to spice up your games. I’d love to hear your ideas on how to use this piece in a campaign or scenario.
Posted under Terrain
NJCon 2009 is getting close and the preliminary events list is up at the convention website. I will be running three games this year, two grinders and Twilight of the Clans. Both events are ones I ran last year, but if you weren’t at NJCon last year, you have a lot to see.
The Grinder will make use of Mechwarrior figures on an oversize (2″) hex mat with hills woods, water and maybe a building or two. Twilight of the Clans will have an impressive array of painted miniatures in fast paced games that will put you in direct control of forces on sculpted 3D terrain. All materials for all games are provided for you so you only have to bring yourself (and a lucky pair of dice if that’s your preference).
There is finally a good reason to come to Jersey. So come on out and blast apart a ‘Mech or two!
Friday Evening, 6pm-10pm
FE-7: Battletech Grinder
Description: Leap into action with the Grinder! The Grinder is a fast paced game of armored combat in the 31st century. Battle it out in an every ‘Mech for itself brawl!
No experience required. Rules taught. All materials provided.
Club or Sponsor: http://www.ScrapYardArmory.com
No. of Players: 12
Saturday Morning, 9am-1pm
SM-14: Battletech Grinder
Description: Leap into action with the Grinder! The Grinder is a fast paced game of armored combat in the 31st century. Battle it out in an every ‘Mech for itself brawl! No experience required. Rules taught. All materials provided.
Club or Sponsor: http://www.ScrapYardArmory.com
No. of Players: 12
Saturday Evening, 7pm-11pm
SE-38: Twilight of the Clans: The Great Refusal (Battletech)
Description: The brave warriors of Task Force Serpent secretly made the thousand-light-year journey to the Smoke Jaguar home world of Huntress to eliminate the last of the Clan’s holdings. What they find there will test the limits of their skills, their endurance and their loyalty. Come and relive a pinnacle moment in Battletech history as the combined forces of the Inner Sphere, under the banner of the Star League, seek to end the threat of the Clan invasion once and for all. All materials provided. Some experience recommended.
Club or Sponsor: http://www.ScrapYardArmory.com
No. of Players: 12